


Touch the Moon

by Miaou Jones (miaoujones)



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, Lost in the Universe, M/M, Memories, Space Explorers, Stargazing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-07
Updated: 2016-07-07
Packaged: 2019-07-14 13:50:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16041755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miaoujones/pseuds/Miaou%20Jones
Summary: Sousuke keeps his eyes closed even when the memories are tucked away again. If he opens his eyes now, he'll only search for a sector of sky that isn't visible from here, for the bright pinpoint he's from, the one he means to return to one day; the one where Makoto is, breathing in air that may or may not be warm, on a patch of planet where it may or may not be night.





	Touch the Moon

**Author's Note:**

> Written for SASO 2016, Bonus Round 3 (gift tags).

The night air isn't warm—or maybe it is; Sousuke would have to take off his helmet to know. In any case he doesn't imagine the air as warm. He looks up at the ever present pinpoints of light, visible against the black of the sky now that the part of the planet he's sitting on has rotated away from the twin suns. 

He's been to some of those bright pinpoints; he's from one of them. The night air wasn't always warm on the one he's from but it was breathable, at least on the part of the planet he used to sit on.

The night air wasn't always warm in Iwatobi, but sometimes it was. And sometimes, even when the air itself wasn't warm, the nights heated up... face still tipped up, Sousuke closes his eyes, heating up himself with memories. 

He keeps his eyes closed even when the memories are tucked away again. If he opens his eyes now, he'll only search for a sector of sky that isn't visible from here, for the bright pinpoint he's from, the one he means to return to one day; the one where Makoto is, breathing in air that may or may not be warm, on a patch of planet where it may or may not be night.

If it's night, Makoto might be looking into the sky too. Down by the water, gazing at the moon. "It's the same moon, wherever you are," Makoto said once when Sousuke asked about the look on his face. A smile had graced that calm and unreadable expression as Makoto looked down from the moon, looked at Sousuke. "Wherever each of us is, the moon is the same for both of us." 

Sousuke remembers that smile, remembers the way it felt when it touched him that night. His mouth feels suddenly lonely and if he could touch it right now he would, even though it would only be his own hand. 

Instead, his fingers close around the object he's holding and he opens his eyes to look down at the miniature globe of Earth that Makoto gave him before Sousuke left. He pushes the latch to open the top, careful not to spill any of the sand grains layered over dirt from Makoto's backyard. 

Light from the triple moons here catches on the round piece of _plagioclase feldspar oligoclase_ resting on the sand, flat side down, giving the stone the illusion of shimmering. "I have the other half," Makoto said when he showed Sousuke the hidden moonstone. "So wherever you go, whatever sky you're under, we can both look at the same moon."

Makoto had smiled then. _I know you'll find your way back to me,_ that smile had said. _Wherever you find yourself, there's always a way back._

Sousuke dares to touch the moon.

He rests his fingertip on the moon a moment longer before closing up the Earth, getting to his feet, and making his way back to base camp. 

Before he goes inside he looks up into the sky once more, past the bright pinpoints of light, through the dark, casting his gaze where he can't see but knows— _knows_ —Makoto is, and smiles.


End file.
